I promised myself not to be too sentimental about Bloesem’s 3rd anniversary… seems I simply cannot help myself though… not that 3 years is a magic number to me but somehow this anniversary feels very different (I will try to further explain below… bear with me…)… so, here I am, very happy, proud and grateful for everything that happened since this first “welcome” to Bloesem post on 17 December 2006… blogfriends, magazines, newspapers and sponsors… and thankful to so many readers who find Bloesem a place worth visiting every day... I cannot express in words how much it means to me… Bloesem is so much a part of me… I guess Bloesem is just the perfect way for me to (sensibly) express my own feelings about things I love and touch me deeply… positive things that is, Bloesem ignores negativity, yep… quite convenient perhaps but blogging to me is about sharing positivity, in this case expressed in design… and believe me, I am normally not that well organized putting my feelings into words… basically, tears first, reason later…Bloesem is also about sharing my honest feelings with you, my readers and sponsors… giving artists the exposure they deserve and helping starting entrepreneurs market their businesses…. if you ask me what defines Bloesem, I believe Bloesem is an open book, nothing to hide, good or bad…. no grey areas… whatever you think of Bloesem… I believe Bloesem is always about something… and that also defines me as a person… at least that is what I ‘d like to think…

Still a piece missing on Bloesem… not quite sure what 2010 has in store for Bloesem… inevitably Bloesem will change as I have changed over the last 3 years… something to do with giving more depth to the things I do… more challenging, less conventional perhaps…?

So what better way to test these ideas with some fellow Dutchmen and women… Dutch Designers… actually, they are in a league of their own, or so they think…(we’ll be the judge of that J…)… these Dutch designers don’t get excited easily… nor do they feel easily offended… quite cool-headed and talented actually, not easy to impress or get a foot in the door (especially not in their personal lives and homes…)… getting their attention might prove a challenge… and this is exactly where Bloesem would like to go… getting a bit more personal….not only showing their work to you, their designs, but rather only showing the work when we know a bit more about the person behind the work.

To give this idea a jump-start I invited a whole bunch of well-known Dutch designers, most of them I have already written about in the past, to share with us some snapshots of their homes, what they like to surround themselves with. I also asked them to finish a short interview, just some keywords and their thoughts and so you wonder, did they open up or were they holding back? … I am sad to say most…but not all did hold back at least a little (some who held back completely I simply will not post… how is that for unconventional…), to be fair, a selected few really opened their doors and for that I am truly grateful… and I hope you will welcome them with open arms, write about them, show their work on your blogs… as these designers understand how blogging connects all of us …

2010 …blogging…getting more personal is this where Bloesem is going? I hope so…here is a start…my background being Dutch…going Dutch…the Dutch getting personal…Let’s Get Personal…tomorrow two Dutch designers are opening their homes hope to see you then! And YES I will get more personal too, starting with some images of our own new home in Kuala Lumpur during the next few weeks…{ps. I would love to hear your thoughts, Like Holly was saying : Talk it out!}

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Hi and welcome to Bloesem! My name is Irene Hoofs and I started this journal in 2006 wanting to share my passion for design, art and craft with you. New to Bloesem? Here are my 10 favorite posts to get you started. Or would you like to see the necklaces I make?